Campfire Tales
by bluespace
Summary: Set back in the episode Strange New World. Its a story that could have been told. and its complete.
1. Chapter 1

Campfire Tales  
  
By: bluespace  
  
Disclaimer: This story is set in the star trek universe which doesn't belong to me, told by the Enterprise crew who are someone else's property, and played out by original characters on a unique storyline which I now claim. In other words, star trek, not mine, story, mine. Oh and I'm not paid a penny.  
  
  
  
Travis Mayweather leaned forward; he was really getting into this scary story business. Trips last story had given them goose bumps and, though they all knew such things weren't true, it was fun to be back in a childlike mindset. There was something comforting about having such ties to your youth.  
  
He glanced over at T'pol. It was almost sad, the lack of emotion. He couldn't imagine a life without laughter or, in this case, chills. It seemed almost empty to him.  
  
"Ok Travis your turn again." Charles 'Trip' Tucker III said having wrapped up his tale. Elizabeth Cutler was poking the fire with a handy stick and Ethan Novakovich was looking at him uneasily. Travis could tell he had been one of those kids who had been easy to scare. What this group needed was a truly scary story, one that was close to real and detailed in its strange happenings. And he was just he one to give it to them.  
  
"Ok I have a great one." Travis started. "It happened about fifty years ago I hear. It was in a time when all there was of humans in space were cargo vessels and research station, and both were fairly sparse. It was a lonely scary time for captains and scientists alike. Most vessels weren't even manned by that many crew, so the bonds were pretty tight.  
  
That was the case with the crew of the Forethought, they were alone in a sea of black, or so they thought.  
  
  
  
The planet spun in silent innocence below them. The entire surface seemed completely devoid of any life. Crystal cobalt blue and iridescent to its watery depths. It was a true water world; no land marred its pristine clarity. It seemed, in fact, that only one thing remained on its surface for any length of time, a tiny research station from the little known planet Earth, and only two people remained in it.  
  
Captain Isabel Tanyae gazed out the slender slit of a window that showed the planet from their high orbit. From this distance it was hard to humanize the violent crimes that had occurred on that very surface.  
  
She glanced down at her report for the third time.  
  
The Forethought is to go directly to planet C1425 and pick up the surviving members of the scientific research station. Be advised that these personal have been exposed to acts of violence and are the only personal out of seven originally assigned to said post. The perpetrator has been apprehended and already removed from post. Unfortunately the long-range law enforcement transport had only one stasis chamber and no room for passengers. Simply retrieve the surviving victims; they are to be released to the authorities at Kessik Prime for transport back to Earth.  
  
Safe Journey.  
  
End transmission.  
  
Isabel sighed, leave it to the company to be vague when helping the government.  
  
She turned to face the window once again. There the 'cargo' waited with baited breath for release from its nightmare. She couldn't even imagine their thoughts at this moment as they awaited the shuttle sent to retrieve them.  
  
She was startled from her thoughts by the door chime.  
  
"Come."  
  
Vilula Green, First officer, entered the room with a swivel of her hips. It was much easier to have a first officer who was also your best friend; formalities on this ship had long ago been laid to a peaceful rest. On Vilula's normally smiling face, though, rested a sour frown. She crossed the quarters in silence and dropped in to the chair in front of Isabel with out a word. This from the talkative little blond was itself warning something was not good.  
  
"Is everything ok?" Isabel asked.  
  
"No." she signed. "We are having a hard time getting clearance for transport. Their computer systems were damaged in the skirmishes and so processing is taking an extraordinarily long time."  
  
Isabel sat thoughtful for a moment.  
  
"Do they match the descriptions supplied?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then try to bypass clearance for now. Over ride the protocols if you have to. Lets get them up here and cleaned up, then take them directly to Miguel." She said referring to the ships surgeon.  
  
Vilula nodded, her smile returning.  
  
"I knew you would understand, Isa." She threw over her shoulder as she walked out to see to the instructions being carried out.  
  
Isabel stared at the closed door through which her friend had just left. It was amazing to her exactly how much power that one smile held. A smile tilting of the lips from Vilula and all seemed right with the world. She sighed and straightened her top, now came the hard part, dealing with the individuals. There was a reason she had sought a job as the captain of a deep space cargo vessel, and it certainly wasn't because she was a people person.  
  
She arrived at the docking bay the same time the shuttle did. She stared blankly at the closed doors and listened half-heartedly to the docking clamps as they engaged.  
  
When the door opened she was first greeted with a familiar face.  
  
Jerome, ships pilot, wore his usual serious face, though it seemed somehow more so today. After him came the two 'survivors'. They didn't look like statistics, just ordinary everyday people.  
  
The woman was tall and slender. She had rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes that seemed somehow very lonely. A kindred spirit no doubt, to have accepted a post here in the middle of nowhere. Her once beautiful blond hair was streaked with sweat and what much have been blood. Isabel wasn't surprised, who could think to wash after such a thing happening.  
  
The man beside her was stocky and strong. He wasn't particularly tall, about as tall as Isabel herself. He had deep black hair and an Asian face that revolved around his light hazel eyes. He to looked unkempt and dirty.  
  
In both their eyes though, there was something more, a total lack of care. They weren't glancing around nervously or hesitating in their steps. They didn't look frightened or traumatized, simply worn out. If you didn't know any better, and if it weren't for the blood, you would think they had just come from a boring seminar on the fate of the collective world government.  
  
It chilled Isabel to look in to such empty eyes.  
  
"Welcome." She greeted them as warmly as she could without hesitation. She reached out and the woman shook her hand, followed by the man. "I'm Isabel Tanyae, captain of the Forethought."  
  
"Elisa." The woman spoke up. "My name is Elisa Regert and this is Aden Chow."  
  
Isabel didn't try to hide her surprise. "The company report said it would be a Elisa Regert and a Nicolas Mandrake."  
  
The woman looked down, seemingly composing herself.  
  
Aden instead spoke up. " Nicolas was taken two days before you arrived."  
  
Isabel nodded, yet another example of stupid beaurocratic mix-ups.  
  
Vilula then exited the shuttle and came to stand beside Isabel.  
  
"I'll take them by the showers before we go see Miguel."  
  
Again Isabel nodded, smiling reassuringly at the pair as they were gently herded off by Vilula to get cleaned and treated.  
  
She caught Aden's eye as he walked by and the look there in made her shiver again. She hoped that look would soon pass.  
  
  
  
Travis took a drink and cleared his throat. Trip was arranging himself more comfortably to take in the rest of the story and Ethan had huddled closer to the fire. Elizabeth was all but tapping her feet waiting for him to continue. At the edge of firelight he noticed that T'pol had paused her work, she wasn't facing them, and she certainly wasn't joining them, but she wasn't lecturing either.  
  
"Well, continue." Elizabeth said impatiently leaning forward.  
  
Travis smiled, ah the power.  
  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED…  
  
I already have this one almost completely written but I'm checking for inconsistencies, still it should go up fairly quickly. 


	2. Chapter 2

Campfire Tales  
  
Chapter 2  
  
  
  
Travis cleared his throat one more time, mainly just to make Elizabeth roll her eyes.  
  
"Ok were was I, oh yes I remember now."  
  
  
  
After three days with nothing more exciting then Peter, the ships xobioligist, coming down with a cold, Isabel decided to take a liberty as captain and sleep in. Andrea, the ships navigator, was more then able to take over for a few hours; they could all do each other's jobs as it was anyway. With six crewmembers and two passengers, protocol was just not the order of the day.  
  
That's why Isabel was surprised when the COM chime woke her only an hour later.  
  
"Isa?" it was Jerome.  
  
"Yeah, what is it." She didn't try to hide her irritation, or the sleep in her voice.  
  
"Are you going to make your shift or not?" maybe the crew was too informal, she thought irritably as she rolled over on to her side.  
  
"Andrea took mine." She said in a whiney sleep ridden tone that she hoped said 'now please, end of conversation'.  
  
"Well she's not here."  
  
Great now she would have to wake up and she would of course never be able to get back to sleep. The least Andrea could have done was warn her she was going to be late, or at least tell Jerome so he didn't wake her up to ask her.  
  
She sat up and rubbed her eyes.  
  
"Try to raise her Jerome, if she's unreachable page me back." She rose and began to dress. If he did find her Isa wanted to let her know she was awake now. And if he didn't, well shed just have to bumble through somehow.  
  
Not a minute later the COM chimed again.  
  
"Yeah?" she answered it.  
  
"I'm so sorry Isa I fell right back to sleep." From the background noise behind Andrea's voice Isa could tell she was down by engineering where her quarters were.  
  
  
  
"And I thought it was about to get good." Trip said scratching the back of his neck.  
  
"Come on you cant just interrupt like that." Travis protested.  
  
"It dose seem to disrupt the flow of the storyline." T'pol concurred from her place still outside the fire circle.  
  
"Sorry, please continue." Trip said with a bit of a laugh in his voice.  
  
  
  
"I'm so sorry Isa I fell right back to sleep." From the background noise behind Andrea's voice Isa could tell she was down by engineering where her quarters were. "I'm on my way now, honest, I'll be there in…" there was a pause. "What are you doing down here?"  
  
"Andrea?" Isa asked. But got no answer. All she heard was the happenings down in engineering.  
  
The next sound was one of the most gruesome Isabel had ever heard, it was deep and throaty and almost completely animal, a hair raising howl like none she had ever heard before.  
  
"What are you doing?" Andrea asked her unknown companion. 'What are you doing' Isabel thought, trying to will Andrea to get out of there.  
  
Before she could form the words on her tongue though, the COM went dead.  
  
That's when chaos broke loose. Lights all over the ship went down and the read emergency lights flashed on in hypnotic rhythms. Then come the slight shutter as the ships engines when down and its forward motion through space ceased.  
  
Isabel rushed out of her quarters and straight in to Miguel.  
  
"I was just coming to see you." The short black surgeon told her. "All this happened rather suddenly, didn't it?" there was no panic in his voice, but then there rarely ever was. On this ship engine problems and lighting failures were a common assurance since the loss of their engineer in a freak plasma explosion.  
  
  
  
"I think he threw that in there just for you." Elizabeth commented with a giggle to Trip.  
  
"I think you may be right. Not very nice though."  
  
Travis continued as if they hadn't even interrupted.  
  
  
  
"Walk with me to engineering, and tell me what you needed." She said. She almost forgot her current situation in her shock. If the reclusive little man had ventured out of sickbay, it had to be something extremely important, may even explain the current situation.  
  
"I think I found the reason for the crimes on C1425."  
  
"I thought it was just some psychopath that Eval missed."  
  
"Not quite, there were actually three murderers, each as normal as you and I. One was Grocho Veen, then Justin Farr, and lastly Nicolas Mandrake who was the only one apprehended."  
  
"So what was the cause?" Isabel asked, impatient not so much with Miguel, but to get to engineering as fast as possible.  
  
"The air."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"You're excused, and yes I said the air. It seems a hormone excreted by one of the aquatic creatures when exposed to air rises in potency and causes extreme violent tendencies in its breathers. Its not a problem for the indigenous life forms because they don't breath the air and so it therefore went unnoticed. It wasn't until Peter and I started digging that we dug the information up."  
  
"You mean it's like a disease?"  
  
"Yes exactly, that's exactly what its like. It can even cause changes in physical structure as well as in behavior."  
  
"So your saying those people down there," she pointed toward guest quarters as they passed another vacant hall, "are infected with this?"  
  
"Yes. I wouldn't worry overmuch though, the virus as it were, takes hold in a relatively short time, a couple of days or so, and these people have exhibited no overly violent behaviors"  
  
"Maybe they have." She yelled as she broke in to a run and left a perplexed Miguel fighting to keep up.  
  
  
  
  
  
To Be Continued…  
  
More to come shortly...I promise. : ) I know its unconventional, story wise. But I kind of like it. 


	3. Chapter 3

"When she and Miguel got to engineering all the poor surgeon could do was identify what was left of the remains as Andrea." Travis said, continuing his narrative.  
  
Elizabeth Cutter made a face as she continued to stab at he fire with her stick. The rest of his audience seemed poised for him to continue. This was the kind of attention he liked. Travis took a breath and forged on.  
  
  
  
Isabel was in shock. It was the second crewmember to be lost in that many months. Tessa's death was still fresh and now this.  
  
She nearly punched the COM button by which Andrea had met her end.  
  
"Vilula!" she yelled into the link,  
  
"Yeah I'm here, what is it?" came the instant and startled response of her best friend.  
  
"Put our guests," she spat the word, "in the brig, on the double, now." She terminated the link and turned quickly to Miguel.  
  
"How?" she asked him in a neutral controlled tone.  
  
He looked at her in shock, actual shock. She didn't think him capable of the emotion; he always seemed almost Vulcan in his responses when it came to work related matters. Which included death and disease. He hadn't even showed this level when he had had to come down to engineering to treat Tessa, and they had been cousins.  
  
"She was torn apart." At Isabel's seeming lack of reaction he continued. "Violence doesn't even describe it, captain, its beyond obscene."  
  
Isabel looked at her feet, and anything but the remains before her. She should really be thinking more clearly. All she could think was how they so rarely called her captain anymore, only when things were really bad.  
  
Then something clicked in her mind.  
  
"The growl." She said under her breath. It had to be the most bizarre disease, and it had to come on her ship.  
  
A chime came on the COM panel before Miguel could ask her to explain.  
  
"Yes." She answered.  
  
"Guests secured." Came Vilula's somber voice. "And strangely subdued." She added almost as an after thought.  
  
"I'm coming up." Isabel hit the switch again. " And so are you." She told Miguel. "Its not good for anyone to be alone with that." She motioned to the remains and Miguel put up no fight at all.  
  
  
  
"Can I ask what all of this is about Isa? It's not like you to go around locking people up." Vilula said. She had met them at the lift as was walking with them to the brig.  
  
"Andrea's dead."  
  
Vilula stopped mid stride and paused for a heartbeat before her company command training took over and she fell back in step with her captain.  
  
"I see." She said, and moved the rest of the way in silence.  
  
The same bored eyes met Isabel as she entered the brig and gazed through the door at the two inside. Now, though, more menace seemed to dwell beneath the surface.  
  
"What happened?" asked Elisa calmly.  
  
"One of my crew is dead, care to explain?" she didn't even attempt to be civil.  
  
"No."  
  
The answer nearly knocked her off her feet, it was so blatant.  
  
"No?"  
  
"No."  
  
Isabel glared in pure malice at the two pairs of insolent eyes that stared back at her. The woman seemed wholly unmoved; the man simply repositioned himself to sit more comfortably on the bench.  
  
She turned to Vilula. "Top security on this cell. Charge the door and change the access code every ten minutes. Have someone in here to check on them every hour on the hour. They can pass the whole trip in there, then they're off my hands."  
  
  
  
"She was just going to leave them in there." Ethan asked. Travis loved it when people actually got involved. When he was young the other children always used to beg him to tell his tall tales or scary stories. After awhile he had searched them out at each port so he would have fresh ones to tell them.  
  
"What else was she supposed to do, carry out an execution?" trip asked, taking up the conversation.  
  
"Such an act would seem illogical with out the proper authorities." T'pol added.  
  
"See. It would have been illogical to do otherwise." Trip answered Ethan.  
  
"Are you done now?" Elizabeth asked them. "Please continue." She said after everyone, except T'pol, had nodded.  
  
  
  
The next day they were back on course, lights were well on their way to being back up and the deck had been cleaned. They went on rotation; everything was supremely routine, so as to reduce stress levels, all by the book. Peter, the xobiologist, was the next scheduled to check on the prisoners. So far, though, there had been no problems there.  
  
Isabel was stepping out of the shower when the call came for her over the COM unit.  
  
"Yeah." She answered distractedly.  
  
"I would like to get out of here. You have to let me out of here."  
  
It was Elisa's voice on the COM. It had its usual boredom, but now it seemed lased with just a hint of urgency. She was still thinking this over when she heard it. The howl, crystal clear over the COM.  
  
"Computer authorize sonic burst cell one." Isabel yelled at the automated defense system as she threw on her cloths and ran for the brig.  
  
When she arrived she saw it hadn't helped. This time there were two undistinguishable piles of flesh and not just the one. When Miguel ran in her stopped right beside her before he went to the task of identification. There was nothing else he could do obviously.  
  
"They must have turned on each other." She commented in a flat tone that she had been using far to often lately.  
  
"How did they get out?" Miguel asked her at last.  
  
Isabel was stunned, she hadn't noticed it before, and the cell door was wide open and one of the remains lay outside of what should have been an inescapable prison.  
  
"Its impossible." She said in no less flat a tone.  
  
Miguel finally went over to the bodies, having paused his duty long enough. He bent to examine the remains with his bulky scanner.  
  
"This one is Elisa." He said of the one inside the cell.  
  
He bent to examine the second and dropped his head when the answer came in.  
  
He turned and stood looking her in the eyes.  
  
"This is Peter."  
  
"No, no he knew not to open that door, he's not that stupid. How could he be so stupid." She was coming undone. Isabel leaned against the wall and put her hand on her forehead taking deep breaths.  
  
"I'm sorry." Miguel said, he put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
She knocked it off, the last thing she wanted right now was comfort, and she would deal with these things later. "We have to find him now." She said. She wrenched herself away from the wall and went to the COM station. It chimed before she could reach it.  
  
"Isa," Vilula's voice was near a whisper.  
  
"Vi, were are you?" concern was never more evident on her face that at that moment.  
  
"I'm hiding." She said in a 'duh' kind of tone. " He's out, and he's here, I can hear him." Isabel's heart caught in her chest.  
  
"Stay were you are, don't move."  
  
"I wont believe me. I cut my leg getting in here I don't think I could even if I wanted to."  
  
She cut off the link and turned to Miguel. With a nod he followed her to the armory and they proceed to arm themselves, something she had never had to do on her own ship. She gave the surgeon a light pat on the shoulder as she moved past him. "Lets go."  
  
"Wonderful." He commented under his breath.  
  
When they were about to make the turn beyond which lay her best friend, Isabel stepped on something slick and nearly lost her balance. Miguel helped her recover and they both shown lights on what it was she stepped on. They both knew what that was. She shook her head no in the red lights as Miguel reached for his scanner.  
  
"Give it to me," she said. "You go ahead. If this isn't her then you need to get her patched up and out of here."  
  
He nodded reluctantly and handed the scanner over to her. He then trudged forward toward the turn about forty paces ahead of them.  
  
Isabel, for her part, bent over the remains with her scanner and struggled to see the read out in the dim red lighting. She felt guilt at her surge of relief that it was Jerome and not Vilula with her footprint in him.  
  
That's when she heard the howl coming from the other side of the corner Miguel had disappeared around. As she raced to the corner she heard Miguel's scream and then Vilula's. She tripped on an uneven deck plating and cursed to herself as she pushed herself to her feet sporting a growing bump on the head.  
  
When she got to the source of the commotion all that was there waiting for her was an all to familiarly gruesome sight. But there was only one. With weapon in had she scanned the shadows quietly searching.  
  
Then she heard a sob from behind the grating and removed it as quickly as she could. Vilula was scrunched in the small access port hugging her knees to her chest and rocking slightly.  
  
"He's here." She said softly, almost to herself.  
  
"But so are we. Come on lets get you out of there." She reached out and helped her friend out of her secure hiding place, the whole time hoping it was the right decision.  
  
"Where are we going?" Vilula asked, favoring her right leg, which was leaking blood.  
  
"Airlock two."  
  
"But there's nothing in there." She paused as realization flooded her face. "Oh."  
  
"Lets go." Isabel took Vilula's left arm over her shoulder and together they labored the distance to their destination.  
  
  
  
"What's in airlock two?" Elizabeth asked.  
  
"Nothing." Travis answered.  
  
"I don't get it." Trip said, a puzzled look on his fire lit face.  
  
"He'll probably explain." Ethan said waiting for Travis to continue.  
  
  
  
A trap, in principle, isn't a difficult thing. To make one work is an entirely different matter. But if Isabel had understood the prognosis, then Aden would have to come out some time.  
  
And three hours later he did. He followed the clues effortlessly in to the crate filled airlock. Isabel and Vilula watched in silence from a safe distance as he rutted around carefully among the boxes looking for them. Before he could figure out they weren't in the airlock, though, Isabel released the control and the doors slammed shut closing him in and the silence of vacuum fallowed.  
  
Wordlessly they approached the view port and saw as he and the crates that had been left inside, tumbled end over end through the void.  
  
Almost on queue the lights flickered back on to full strength.  
  
Isabel let out a long needed, well disserved, sigh of relief and turned to her smiling friend who returned her gaze.  
  
Then, her smile never fading, her eyes just as bright as ever, Vilula raised her head and began to howl.  
  
  
  
"The end." Travis said triumphantly, as he gazed at the shocked looks around him.  
  
"It just ends like that, she doesn't get away?" Elizabeth asked incredulous.  
  
"I thought Aden was the killer?" Ethan asked over her.  
  
"Actually a quit similar virus dos exist." T'pol commented arresting all attention. "It was discovered by Vulcan High Command on an abandoned Human carrier. It doesn't cause the same reaction in all it's infect ants. In most it produces animalistic violence, in the others, senseless boredom and lose of self-interest. The planet of its origins was documented and a warning beacon set in place. The Virus isn't contagious, you have to catch it at the source."  
  
They all stared at her numbly; Travis nodded as if he had just received a great vindication.  
  
"Oh that's just creepy." Elizabeth said finally.  
  
"I second that, very disturbing." Trip concurred, Ethan merely nodded.  
  
Travis just started to laugh.  
  
  
  
Later that evening, before joining Trip in the tent, Travis approached T'pol at the edge of the camp.  
  
"Sub-commander?"  
  
"Yes ensign." She answered in her normal Vulcan tone.  
  
"I just wanted to thank you for making up the back story back there. It made the hole thing much more realistic."  
  
She cocked an eyebrow at him.  
  
"I made nothing up ensign. It is documented Vulcan fact." She then simply turned and entered her tent, closing the flap on his shocked face.  
  
  
  
  
  
THE END  
  
Feedback, I live for feedback!! 


End file.
